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3/25/2018 Folgers Wakes Up With a New Premium Cup of Coffee - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/waking-up-a-brand-with-a-new-folgers-in-your-cup-1519209001 1/4

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/waking­up­a­brand­with­a­new­folgers­in­your­cup­1519209001

BUSINESS

Folgers Wakes Up With a New Premium Cup of Coffee J.M. Smucker to introduce a premium ground co�ee to battle the pods and gourmet blends

Co�ee drinkers didn’t have the pod in 1850, but they can soon have 1850 in a pod, a new Folgers o�ering. PHOTO: FOLGERS

Feb. 21, 2018 5�30 a.m. ET

By Annie Gasparro

3/25/2018 Folgers Wakes Up With a New Premium Cup of Coffee - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/waking-up-a-brand-with-a-new-folgers-in-your-cup-1519209001 2/4

Folgers is taking its biggest risk in decades with a new brand aimed at reviving the 167-

year-old coffee giant, in the latest attempt by a food maker to win over younger

consumers.

Folgers has long offered coffee drinkers a cheaper way to brew it at home with ground

coffee sold in bulk in metal cans and later plastic containers. But Folgers executives

said that in the past decade it has been losing customers to single-serve coffee pods

popularized by Keurig and to gourmet coffee brands, which tout better beans by

offering details of their origins, the roasting process and tasting notes.

Folgers’s owner, J.M. Smucker Co. , is betting millions that a new, higher-

end brand of coffee will help it win back shoppers and revive sales growth. Called 1850

by Folgers and expected to hit shelves in April, it is made with 100% arabica coffee

beans, steel-cut instead of pulverized and roasted in perforated drum roasters as

opposed to solid ones. The product is to be sold in smaller, 12-ounce bags for an average

of 55 cents an ounce, compared to the Folgers brand, which sells for as low as 25 cents

an ounce and is usually a blend of arabica and the cheaper robusta beans. 1850 by

Folgers will also come in single-serve pods for Keurig brewers.

Industrywide sales of mainstream coffee, like Folgers, fell 3% on average over the

last three years, while premium coffee rose 4% and single-cup sales increased 8%,

according to Smucker. But the company’s coffee business, which generates roughly $2

billion in annual sales, didn’t follow the growth to more premium brands, said Chief

Executive Mark Smucker. Now Smucker, which bought Folgers from Procter & Gamble

Co. in 2008, is trying to catch up.

The Folgers move is similar to moves made in recent years by other big food makers

who have sought to reinvent their brands, though with mixed success.

General Mills was able to boost its yogurt sales—after Yoplait struggled to compete

with smaller brands—by offering a new French-style yogurt last year called Oui by

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3/25/2018 Folgers Wakes Up With a New Premium Cup of Coffee - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/waking-up-a-brand-with-a-new-folgers-in-your-cup-1519209001 3/4

Yoplait. The company in 2016 introduced its first new cereal in 15 years, called Tiny

Toast, but it was folded into an existing brand when it failed to attract a following.

In the crackers aisle, Wheat Thins owner Mondelez International Inc. started a brand

called Vea last year to offer sweet potato and quinoa crackers and compete with new,

health-focused competitors. Mondelez said it takes time to build brand awareness.

Smucker’s latest effort in coffee took about a year and a half, with Smucker’s research

and development team concocting hundreds of varieties of coffee blends with beans

from various countries, and holding focus groups to get feedback.

“We probably weren’t fast enough, but it’s faster, better than we’ve done in the past,”

Mr. Smucker said in an interview.

The Folgers team undertook more than double the research they normally would for a

new product. Millennials prefer darker, stronger coffees with a story behind the brand,

their research showed, but changing the perception of Folgers is difficult. It is too

closely associated with the jingle in its commercials in circulation since 1984: “The best

part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.” Executives said for the new brand, they

looked for 1800s images and names of blends that Folgers has sold, going as far back as

its beginnings in 1850 as a provisioning company for gold miners in San Francisco.

Wolfe Research analyst Scott Mushkin recently said Smucker is “the poster child”

representing the challenges affecting Big Food, with brands in declining product areas

of the grocery store. But he said the slew of new items that Smucker has hinted at will

likely accelerate sales growth this year.

The coffee project will indicate Smucker’s chances of success with its other traditional

brands, including its peanut butter, cooking oils and namesake fruit spreads. All three

are battling smaller niche brands with simpler, higher-quality ingredients.

3/25/2018 Folgers Wakes Up With a New Premium Cup of Coffee - WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/waking-up-a-brand-with-a-new-folgers-in-your-cup-1519209001 4/4

Mr. Smucker said: “We are trying to strike the right balance between leading, iconic

brands and emerging brands.”

Write to Annie Gasparro at [email protected]

Appeared in the February 22, 2018, print edition as 'Folgers Wakes Up To Evolving

Tastes Of Coffee Drinkers.'

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